Humility can help corporates see past their greed, myopia

The commentary “The power of humility” (March 7) reminds me of 1948 Nobel Laureate poet T S Eliot, who said “humility is endless”.

Humility is not part of schools’ syllabus. And even when we try to teach the classics on ethics, or conduct religious classes, one cannot stop anyone from being full of himself. There is currently much economic uncertainty, but the competitive education system here has seemed unable to produce graduates who can come up with answers to bring about higher productivity during trying times like these.

Instead, Singapore is full of well-educated graduates who chase materialistic goals. In the corporate world, arrogance can make the most brilliant person blind to the most obvious answers when running a business. Paying low wages for blue-collar positions to cut manpower costs will not raise productivity. It also makes such employees, who already face difficulties finding jobs because of their relatively low educational qualifications, resentful of their employers.

We need the power of humility to help top management in firms see past their short-sightedness and greed.